During a video conference, a decoder system receives streams of pictures that can include pictures of varying sizes. Due to the amount of data in a picture, the pictures are often encoded in accordance with any one of a variety of standards. These standards can include, but are not limited to, MPEG-2, H.264, and VC-1, to name a few.
Because of the different sizes of the pictures, different amounts of time are required to decode the pictures. Additionally, same size pictures can take different amounts of time to decode, as well. For example, in MPEG-2, bi-directionally encoded pictures can take longer to decode than intra-coded pictures.
After the pictures are decoded, the pictures are postprocessed for display and provided to a formatter. The formatter arranges the pictures for the video conference. Due to the varying amounts of time required to decode pictures, a postprocessor can finish postprocessing a picture, before the decoder finishes decoding the next picture for postprocessing. During this time, the postprocessor provides a blank picture to the formatter. This can slow down the picture rate, reducing the quality of the video conference.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, through comparison of such systems with embodiments of the present invention as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.